(6) Tile correspondence with Marcellinus, the Imperial com- missioner, and with Boniface elaborates Augustine's judgment on war from a Christian standpoint. In a long letter {Ep. cxxxviii.) to the former on various doctrinal and practical difficulties, including the question of the compatibility of the Sermon on the Mount with effective citizenship, he uses Lk 31* to prove that the Christian religion did not prohibit military service. If all soldiers — and even citizens — would live up to these gospel-demands, there would be no fear of weakness to the State (cxxxviii. 3. IS). He repeats to Bonilace(£'?). clxxxix.) this argument from John the Baptist's rule, and adds that war is only "a lamentable necessity, a last resort, a means to secure peace, not an end in itself. 'Peace ought to be your desire, war only your necessity . . . peace is never sought for the purpose of stirring up war, but war is waged in order to win peace.* Hence, even in warfare, be a pe.icemaker, that you may, by conquering your assailants, bring them oyer to the advantages of peace. . . . Let it be necessity, not your desire, which slays the foe in fight.' This is a Christian replica of the spirit which prompted Lucan's (ix: 199) famous praise of Pompey : 'Praetulit arma togae, sed pacem armatus amavit.' It is civilians who are truculent more often than those who have actually to fight, but Augustine knew that even generals needed a word on moderation in the hour of victory. When Boniface, after his wife's death, had almost resolved in a fit of depression to quit the public service and become a monk, Augustine (j&/>. ccxx. 3) dissu.aded him, pointing out that by forcibly restraining the invaders of N. Africa he could render far better service to the Church, which would then be protected from these barbarian hordes. The supreme obstacle to a good life, as he says, is not militia but malitia, not the army but iniquity. Thus Augustine not only indicates the army as a profession for Christian laymen, t but actually insists on military efficiency no less than on self-restraint in a general (cf. Cicero, de OJic.'t. xi. 36). A Christian soldier must regard his profession as a 'gift from God,' in the sense of 1 Co 7', and he must therefore use his gift to the fullest advantage for God.
(c) It is * a passion for doing injury, cruel revenge, a fierce and implacable temper, savage fury, the lust of power, and things like these, that sum up what is rightly reprobated in war. It is generally to punish these crimes rightly that good men undertake war at all and carry it on, in obedience to God or some lawful authority, against violent opposition.' This had been, of course, the aim of the ideal Hebrew monarch ; he wielded the sword (Ps 463-1) ' on behalf of Ioy.al piety, humility, and justice.' But Augustine refers to a NT argument. He quotes : ' Render to C-esar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.' Then he adds, 'And tribute money is paid for the very purpose of providing pay for the soldiers who are needed to fight. . . . The natural order of things, which promotes the peace of mankind, lays it down that a ruler has the authority
• As Cicero had already urged (de Offlc. I. xxiii. 80 ; ' War should be undertaken in such a way as to make it plain that the only aim is peace'; !. xi. 35: 'Wars have to be undertaken sinipfj' in order to secure freedom from harm in peace, but, once the victory has been gained, those who have not been cruel and savage in warfare are to be spared ').
t Eusebius is the first {Dem. Evang. i. 8) to assert that fight- ing in a just cause is one of the secular avocations which, like trade and family-life, are not permissible to the apostolic spirit of the clergy ; but he makes this remark quite incidentally. It is only in the so-called Apost. Canons (5th cent. ?) that the clergy are forbidden to take military service, and even there it is pluralities that are condemned ('any bishop or presbyter or deacon engaging in military service and claiming to hold both offices, that of a Roman official and of the Christian priesthood, sliall be deposed. For what is Caesar's is Caesar's, what is God's is God's,' 83).
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and ability to uniiertake war, wliilo sniijiors must serve in the execution of military orders on ln-liiilf of tiie common jtcacc and safety. It is wroii>r to donltt that war is ri>clUeou9 wjien it is undertaken in obedience to God, to overawe or cmsh or master human arrogance. . . . There is no power except from Ciod (Ro l;ii), by llis command or permission ; conscfiuently a riirht- eons man who liappcns to be servinij under even a sacrilegious kin)^, is justilied in fifihtinsr under his monarch's orders '—for, even when these orders are not obviously just, tiie responsibility does not lie with the soldier. Such is the argument of the treatise apainst Faustus. Ever since the fulfilment of Ps 72" (' All kin;;s of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him') in Christ, who is the true Solomon or Peace, 'Chris- tian emperors, putting entire confidence in Christ, have won splendid victories over sacrilef^ious foes who relied on the rites of idols and demons." The entire arjjument tvirns upon the objection raised by the Manich;cans, as earlier by the Marcion- ites, to the use of force by the UT t!od.